Halen Vulture
Halen-Vulture (originally "''Halengamen" in Swedish'') is a cryptid animal of southern Sweden. The Halen Vulture is reported to be a living pterosaur. This animal is very similar in looks and behaviours to the African cryptid pterosaur called Kongamato. Description The Halen Vulture is said to look like a vulture with leathery skin, just like fish scales, instead of feathers. http://www.ungafakta.se/mysterier/monster/bevingade-flygodlor.asp 'Behaviour' Instead of perching onto a tree, this animal is reported as being used to dive under the water to catch fish, and it is said to stay under the water for some time. It is said that it can fly so fast and with so much power that it could easily devour boats, just like it's African cousin, the cryptid pterosaur Kongamato. The animal is also said to be very excellent at flight. 'Resemblence with Kongamato' The Halen Vulture is very similar to a proposed living pterosaurian cryptid in Congo, Cameroon and Kenya in Africa, a cryptid named Kongamato, which name is congolese for "the breaker of boats". The Halen Vulture is also known to be a breaker of boats and living near water sources. 'Possible migration or hibernation' One interesting and important question that has been asked is where the Halen Vulture spends it's time during the winter. One hypothesis is that it is a migrating species which during the winter months travels to Africa, for example, hence the similarity between the Halen Vulture and Kongamato. Unless they aren't the same animal, they might just happen to have similar behaviours, or they are the same species but which exists at two different places. Another possible explanation is that the Halen Vulture undergoes hibernation, or brumation as for reptiles. There are reptiles who are known for hibernating (brumating), but whether this pterosaur does so is yet to be confirmed. Location The Halen Vulture is reported around Lake Halen near Olofström in Blekinge, Skåne (Sweden). The area around Lake Halen is a natural reserve which still holds areas of unexplored nature. 'Nesting place' The nesting place of this mysterious animal is said to be on the island Stora Norrön (the Great North Island). This has supposedly been the animal's nesting place for centuries. History The Halen Vulture has been told about for centuries, and in the 1970's it was adopted as a mascot for a local school and thereby named "Halengamen" (the Halen Vulture). In later years, the animal even got it's own unofficial latin name, "Sarcorhampus Papa Halensis" and even a scientific description. Some say this creature has already gone extinct, but others claim the opposite to that belief. https://www.flashback.org/t1886223 Explanations 'Surviving pterosaurs' The claim of the Halen Vulture being a living pterosaur is currently the best and strongest explanation. The Halen Vulture is said to look like a vulture, and several different pterosaurs do have similarities with vultures. The Halen Vulture is also said to have scaly skin instead of feathers. 'Birds' Some people have tried to explain away sightings of the prehistoric Halen Vulture as just misidentifications of known birds such as Häger https://www.flashback.org/t1886223, Fiskgjuse, Skarv https://www.flashback.org/p40636634#p40636634, Bearded Vulture and Griffon Vulture https://www.flashback.org/t1886223p2. Though none of them are even close to the general description of the Halen Vulture. The two species of vultures which passes Sweden very rarely were only suggested because of their names which includes "vulture", just like the Halen Vulture, but they do not match the description of the Halen Vulture. The Fiskgjuse and Skarv were suggested because of their ability of diving underwater, but yet again, this is only a part of the overall description of the Halen Vulture. And the Häger do have a small similarity with pterosaurs, but it also fails to match the description of the Halen Vulture. While some wants to find this bird-idea most convincing, others find this idea too far away from the actual facts. 'Big bats' Another suggestion was that the Halen Vulture was based on big bats, yet, the Halen Vultures size is considered to be around large-bird size and no bats with such a big size are known in Scandinavia. The biggest Scandinavian bats known only have some centimetre-long bodies and wingspan, but not anything considerably large. 'Manta Ray' Yet another weird explanation was that the Halen Vulture was a Manta Ray jumping out of the water and gave the illusion that it could fly and then dive underwater with power. But even this explanation does not fit the while description, and Manta Rays are not known to exist in Lake Halen. 'Imagination' Another idea was that pterosaurs (especially the bigger ones) could not have survived the Cretaceous/Paleogene-extinction about 65.5 million years ago and make it until the present day, so the Halen Vulture must be a joke and merely the stuff of legend. First of all, there are no reliable evidence that can show how long pterosaurs have been around, and especially not that the K/T-event ever happened. Secondly, the fact that several people around the world have reported and are reporting even today that they have seen, heard, encountered, or found tracks of prehistoric birds, or pterosaurs. There are many reliable eyewitnesses, and many cases and studies about living pterosaurs have been made public through non-fiction books such as "Live Pterosaurs In America - Sightings of Apparent Pterosaurs in the United States" by Jonathan David Whitcomb, among cryptozoologists a well known author and investigator of the worldwide living pterosaur phenomenon. See also Prehistory of Scandinavia Quaternary life of Scandinavia Cryptids of Scandinavia External links * http://www.facebook.com/pages/Halengamen-The-Halen-Vulture/367993573270468?ref=hl Halengamen (The Halen Vulture), facebook References